Construction on the exterior of our beach house is currently on hold because of the extreme cold we’ve been experiencing here in the Northeast. This, however, did not stop our beautiful new Italian La Castellamonte[2] wood stove from being delivered this week—despite the fact that the house is not ready! So instead of having this extremely cumbersome and heavy delivery delivered directly to the house—and have the contractor unpack it and set it up—that burden (at least half of it) fell on John and me. I’m willing to bet that this happens more often than not in renovation projects.

Luckily, we have a very nice climate-controlled and carpeted storage unit at “The Lockup” near our house in Branford. John and I drove to Connecticut to meet the stove and deliver it to its temporary home. The stove is cast iron (very heavy!) and arrived in two huge wooden crates that the two of us could just barely lift. We knew from the size of the crates that we’d have to unpack them first in order to fit the wood stove in our storage unit. Using a crowbar and wire cutter to dismantle the extremely well made crates (they had hinges at each corner), we carefully got the stove out and up to our second-floor storage unit.

The whole process was very involved and took several hours but it will be totally worth it when we have this gorgeous wood stove in our home. It has a beautiful white ceramic exterior and a cast iron interior—so it’s sturdy but very sleek and fresh looking—reminiscent of a 19th century Swedish or French stove. I can’t wait to see it in its permanent home and take part in the coziness that I know it will provide!